Comic Reader Résumé: January, 1985

January of 1985 appears to have been a great month for books I barely remember having read well after the point of initial publication. Some, like Sisterhood of Steel #2 I know for a fact that I read, owned, may still have in a box somewhere, and yet continues to mean absolutely nothing to me. Others, like Amazing Spider-Man #264 were borrowed from a friend, read once, sucked, and yet still linger on the fringes of my mind (football player given powers by suit sweats a lot and meets an unfortunate fate.) Maybe it was the extra thought and care that went into an inventory story by a writer with three whole credits to his career and Dave Cockrum's wife.

Tales of the Teen Titans #52 fared better, with the return of Cheshire from my beloved New Teen Titans Annual #2, nice art by Rich Buckler and Mike DeCarlo, and a pleasant enough thriller/origin/solo story for Jericho. I retained a soft spot for Joe Wilson despite his ugly costume, Aryan Jewfro, and anachronistic muttonchops. Shame that he only got more awful from there (the permullet, for example.)



I can't recall if I read a friend's or my half-brother's copy of Uncanny X-Men #192. The premise of contracting the transmode virus was mildly terrifying, but not quite as much as Colossus and Rogue's new costumes. Ugh.

I loved the ending to Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #6 as a kid, with Logan forced to give in to a berserker rage to defeat Ogun, only to be defeated himself by that resort. Plus, Shadowcat was born, however meaningless that might be now. Poor girl struggles for years to work out a decent codename, and now nobody bothers to use it anymore.



Apologies to moonlighting lettering great Todd Klein, but Blue Devil #11 was so bad I skipped the next two issues, and a re-read a year or so ago reminded me that it's still terrible by more forgiving, nostalgic standards.

I think I gave Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1 a chance, but I was older and less impressed than I was when Marvel Tails came out.



I got Captain America #305 out of a grocery store three-pack, and was impressed by the premise of a British Captain. Modred The Mystic had taken control of Brian Braddock to instigate a fight, so I was impressed/confused when my brother turned up with a copy of Marvel Chillers #1 a few years later where the guy was used as a protagonist. While I thought the costume was kind of nice, I was unimpressed with Captain Britain's fallibility and excessive powers, a bias that continues to this day. I was also underwhelmed by the Paul Neary art, and fought off buying another issue until 1987.

Finally, I bought Ewoks #1 at the 7-11, despite it being two years distant from Return of the Jedi and following those cheesy ABC television movie events. I had a weird interest in Star Comics, despite having outgrown their target demographic (not that they ever hit the broad side of that demographic, hence that whole abject failure thing.) I'd get suckered one more time by Lucas properties, but I never bought this series again.